World No. 11 Olivia Fiechter reached the largest final of her career–falling short against world No. 2 Nouran Gohar–at the $51,000 Cincinnati Gaynor Cup, February 2-6.
Fiechter entered the tournament as the tournament’s five seed and with a career high world ranking of No. 11, which the twenty-six-year-old has held for the first two months of 2022.
After a first round win against Malaysia’s Rachel Arnold, Fiechter set up a U.S. Open rematch against U.S. teammate and world No. 4 Amanda Sobhy. As she did in October, Fiechter pulled off the upset over the two seed in five games 11-1, 6-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-5 in forty-nine minutes to reach the semifinals.
The Princeton graduate once again needed five games to make it past Cornell’s Sivasangari Subramaniam in the semifinals 4-11, 11-3, 6-11, 18-16, 11-9 in fifty-three minutes. Egypt’s top seed, Gohar, awaited Fiechter in the final, and captured her maiden Cincinnati Cup 11-6, 11-3, 11-8 in thirty-six minutes.
“Thanks to the Gaynor family and all of the sponsors that made this event possible, from start to finish it’s been such an incredible week,” Fiechter said after the final. “You’ve been an amazing crowd all week and this is why we love playing. It makes it so much more special for us to play in front of a crowd that has this energy and appreciates good squash. So it’s been a blast playing in front of you this week and I’m just happy to play some of my best squash and reach the final and have the opportunity to play Nouran who as you can see is just ruthless. I tried my best out there and I was hoping in the third to save a few more match balls but I had a feeling she wasn’t going to let that happen. Congrats to her on playing an amazing final, there’s a reason why she’s in contention for the world No. 1 spot in the world. Thanks for an amazing week, I can’t wait to come back next year.”
The Gaynor Cup celebrated its fifth edition this year, and organizers announced after the final that the event would return in 2023 as a PSA Silver draw.